Doing It Marginally Well Since 2005

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Dissonance

One of the few times Bob and I really seem to notice our age difference is when we discuss music. Bob’s musical tastes seem to have peaked around 1978 and have remained there for decades. When we were first dating, he used to play Jim Croce and the Eagles and vintage Billy Joel (not the River of Dreams Billy Joel from MY youth). I’m not arguing for music superiority since I listened to Vanilla Ice, Wilson Phillips and Bell Biv Devoe in high school and certain Celine Dion songs can still make me cry. So, it’s not that. It’s just that we basically have a complete disconnect on what we each like to listen to.

To remedy this, for Christmas, I gave Bob a new iPod. This way, he I could download his old person music to his own device and he could play it at his leisure. The very first thing he asked me to download to his iPod was Wings Greatest, a compilation of greatest hits from some band called Wings.

“Sure, whatever, there you go,” I said, as I handed him back the iPod.

I proceeded to watch Bob air guitar and air drum for the next two hours while quietly karaoking to Wings. It was like he had been given 1978 back. He kept trying to hand me an earbud so I could share in the glory that is Wings but I declined.

What I didn’t realize is that all of our Apple products are awesome and smart and advanced and are synced so our iPod and our iPhone and our MacBook all talk to each other all of the time and they were all sharing Wings’ playlist. I discovered this when I plugged my iPhone into our speaker docking station and it started blaring some ancient Paul McCartney/Wings collaboration.

Now, I’m pretty sure there’s a way to create different albums for different users on our different devices but I haven’t had the time to figure all of this out in iTunes. I am easily overwhelmed by technology and also very lazy and I have three kids and so I just hit “Shuffle” when I play my music library.

Also suspicious is that whatever algorithm used by iTunes when you hit shuffle seems to favor Bob because my phone plays an inordinate amount of Wings Greatest (sometimes one song right after another) when it’s supposed to be “shuffling” through Dave Matthews or Katy Perry or Pearl Jam. (Also, despite an extensive music library, the algorithm also plays that one Ho Hey song and the Frozen ballad over and over again until my ears bleed.)

The shuffle feature must be broken. Or, Wings is playing a joke on me.

Here’s what we’ve been listening to lately. (Well, everyone but Bob. Bob is still listening to Wings.):

I hear this song and pretend my deck isn’t coated in ice. Joshua Radin, ft. Sheryl Crow, Beautiful Day

We listen to this song when we’re having a rough day and I can feel the frustrations mounting in my brain. The kids and I turn this up really loud and jump around the kitchen while the floor shakes. It works out the issues. Also, this would make an excellent addition to an exercise mix. (If one knows how to do that sort of thing.) Bleachers, I Wanna Get Better

I listen to this song and think of Millie. It’s about a brave woman. Esmé Patterson, Bluebird

When I had to have my laptop serviced, the Apple guy made sure all systems were working before I walked away from the Genius Bar. He pulled up iTunes and played this song and I was kind of embarrassed and I’m pretty sure he was judging me because he looked like his musical tastes were much cooler than Carly Simon and then I awkwardly explained how great the movie Heartburn was but he was twelve so he didn’t really GET IT. Carly Simon, Coming Around Again